Dissertation Defended, Dr. Fizza Raza
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Fizza Raza who successfully defended her dissertation on July 11th, 2023. Dr. Fizza Raza’s dissertation is titled “Fertility Rates in South Asia and South Asian Diaspora in the United States: Convergence or Divergence?”
This is a three-article dissertation in which Dr. Raza focuses on fertility differentials between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and how these differentials might be sustained in the diaspora population within the United States and how fertility levels might differ between the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi immigrant population in the United States and population residing in their home countries. The first manuscript focuses on fertility trends for Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan over time and between countries. In this paper, Dr. Raza uses Poisson regression, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition and path modeling to understand the impact of socioeconomic determinants, especially women’s education, on the total number of children ever born. In the second manuscript, Dr. Raza compares the recent fertility for Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi immigrants in the United States with other race/ethnicity groups living in the United States. She uses the American Community Survey (ACS) to analyze how the process of assimilation via the increased duration of stay in the United States, improvements in the educational attainment and ability to speak English may have an impact on changing the fertility behavior of the South Asian immigrants. The third manuscript is a comparative study of recent fertility levels of Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi immigrants residing in the United States and their counterparts living in their home countries. This study uses ACS data to study the fertility patterns of immigrant groups and Demographic and Health Survey to study the fertility patterns of the population groups living in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Dr. Theresa Morris, Dr. Ernesto Amaral, Dr. Brian Colwell (Public Health) and Dr. Heili Pals (chair) served on Dr. Raza’s committee.
Congratulations, Dr. Raza! We are very proud of you!